What is the historical reasoning and by whom was this law written?
Exodus 22:18
KJV - 18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
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Christ tells us if a person who hears the word and rejects it, he would not judge because he came not to judge.
John 12: 47: And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
Now if Christ does not judge us now, why do we take it upon ourselves to judge others? The apostle wrote, "Let the same mind in Christ be in you." Judge not lest you be judged.